The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to electrical crimp terminals configured to be crimped to electrical devices, such as cables or wires.
Electrical crimp terminals are often used to terminate the ends of wires or other electrical devices. Some electrical terminals include a crimp barrel and an electrical contact. The crimp barrel is crimped around the end of the wire to establish an electrical connection between electrical conductors in the wire and the terminal as well as to mechanically hold the electrical terminal on the wire. When crimped over the wire, the crimp barrel establishes an electrical and mechanical connection between the conductors of the wire and the electrical contact of the terminal, such that the terminal carries current from the wire to the mating component connected to the electrical contact.
Conductors of wires are often fabricated from metal materials, such as copper and aluminum, which may form poorly conductive oxide layers on the exterior surface of the wire conductors when exposed to air. Furthermore, build-up of surface contaminants from processing steps may further inhibit surface conductivity. Such exterior conductor surface oxide layers must be penetrated in order to form reliable metal-to-metal connections between the metal material of the wire and the metal material of the electrical crimp terminal. For example, some crimp barrels include one or more serrations that, during a crimping operation, are configured to scrape or wipe against the conductors of the wire to displace the oxide layer and expose fresh metal of the conductors for establishing a metal-to-metal connection.
But, it may be difficult to displace enough of the oxide layer during the crimping operation to achieve a sufficient electrical and mechanical bond, and thereby establish a reliable electrical connection, especially for electrical terminals formed of metal materials that are similar in strength to the materials of the wire conductors. For example, some electrical terminals are formed of lower-strength metals than traditional terminals in order to reduce cost and improve electrical conductivity of the terminals relative to higher-strength metals. But, during a crimping operation, when the terminal has a similar strength or elasticity as the wire conductors, both the terminal and the wire conductors may extrude or flow with similar characteristics such that there may be little differential or relative flow between the terminal and the wire conductors. The reduced differential flow inhibits the ability for the existing serrations to wipe and scrape against the conductors to displace the oxide layer, resulting in a poor electrical connection between the terminal and the wire.
A need remains for an electrical crimp terminal that is able to displace the oxide layer on electrical conductors in the crimp barrel during a crimping operation to provide a reliable electrical connection between the terminal and the electrical conductors, even when there is limited differential flow between the metal of the terminal and the metal of the conductors during the crimping operation.